01 Jun 2016

The Kgalagadi Sand brick-moulding project in the Good Hope – Mabule constituency, which is one of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) set for the sub-district is doing well.

Good Hope Sub-district council chairperson, Ms Mmaobene Molefhe said on May 30 when officially opening the sub-district council sitting that the two brick-moulding projects, which use the new technology and Kgalagadi sand are currently based in Mabule and Phitshane Molopo.

The bricks, she said, would be made by compressing Kgalagadi sand, which is abundant along Molopo River villages, where two adjoining plots earmarked for brick molding and a borrow pit have been allocated.

She said the project at Phitshane Molopo is progressing well as stage 1, which includes plot demarcation and installation of brick press pen mix and shed over the brick press is complete.

However, she said utility connections were delaying the project even though council has paid Water Utilities Corporation and Botswana Power Corporation for such.

She indicated that the project would cos approximately P 469 000 out of a total of P2.5 million budget.

In addition, she said the council was processing the borrow pit license for the project while in Mabule mobilisation to acquire land for brick-molding and borrow pit is ongoing.

The sub-council chairperson indicated that kgotla meetings had been held across the sub-district specifically to inform residents on ESP and that a total of 51 villages were reached during the exercise.

However, she indicated that some few villages experienced a low turnout, hence the postponement of the meetings, hoped to be held after the full council session.

On council’s financial matters, Ms Molefhe said the current financial year has a deficit of 11 per cent when compared with the previous year’s budget, which was around P71 million. This year’s budget is around P63 million.

Ms Molefhe therefore encouraged departments to adhere to their procurement plans and closely monitor their expenditure in response to budget reduction.

She also encouraged them to assist in coming up with new methods of increasing revenue to augment the budget.

Giving an update on the implementation progress of programmes in the sub-district, the chairperson said the sub-district is implementing seven Remote Area Development Programme (RADP) projects at Sekhutlane.

These projects are brick-molding, welding, fabrication, carpentry, poultry and horticulture.

Among these, she said only four were functional while others were not operational due to none commitment by beneficiaries.

On the LIMID programme, she indicated that a total of 3 363 applications were received and 3 081 were approved while 257 applications are awaiting assessment. A total of 1 301 projects have been established.

Of these projects, 1 1 45 are for small stock rearing while 156 are for Tswana chickens.

Despite the efforts made by the LIMID office to process the applications, Ms Molefhe said there was a challenges of shortage of small stock in the sub-district, which leaves most of the projects incomplete.

On issues of farming, Ms Molefhe said a total of 18 farmers who were allocated land for plaughing at Mosisedi farms had planted 5 807 hectors; 3 596 hectors was sorghum and 2 055 was maize. The crops are in good condition and better yields are anticipated this season, she said.

However, she indicated that the quilia bird and ball worm pose a threat to crops and that control measures have been prescribed to. Ends